The abandoned mobile phones that people idle or throw away actually contain great commercial value. Many parts in mobile phones are made of precious metals such as gold, silver and copper. With the soaring prices of these metals in the international market, a new type of "mining industry" has emerged in Japan-recycling useful metals from discarded mobile phones and other electrical appliances.
Mobile phone "gold mine"
Japan is short of natural resources, and the developed electronics industry needs a lot of precious metals. Recycling electronic products to extract useful metals has become an important means to make up for the shortage of natural resources in Japan.
Wang, manager of the Japanese "ecosystem" recycling company, told the Reuters on the 27th: "For some people, a large number of mobile phones discarded every year are just a pile of garbage, but for us, it is a gold mine."
The research conducted by Yokohama Metal Company in Japan shows that only about 5 grams of gold can be extracted from each ton of ore extracted from gold mines. At least 150g of gold, 100kg of copper and 3kg of silver can be extracted from a ton of discarded mobile phones.
Some metals recovered from discarded mobile phones are reused in electronic components, while gold and other precious metals can be sold not only to integrated circuit manufacturers, but also to jewelers and investors.
The international gold price once reached 1030.80 USD/oz in March 2008, and now it is stable at 890 USD/oz. The prices of copper, tin and silver are also much higher than the historical average. Therefore, Japan's new "mining industry" continues to grow and develop with the rise of international metal prices.
The output is considerable
A large number of electronic products such as mobile phones are discarded in Japan every year. The "Ecosystem" recycling company was established in this city 80 kilometers away from Tokyo 20 years ago. It collects valuable metals from recycled mobile phones and other electronic products.
The "ecosystem" recycling company first dismantled and classified all kinds of fragments by hand, then dipped them into chemicals to remove unnecessary metal impurities, and then purified the remaining metals.
The extracted gold is collected, melted and cast into gold bars weighing about 3 kilograms. The market price of this gold bar is about $90,000.
The "Ecosystem" recycling company produces 200 to 300 kilograms of gold bars every month, with a purity of 99.99% and a value of about 5.9 to 8.8 million US dollars, which is equivalent to the output of a small gold mine.
Eco-recycling companies also recycle discarded memory chips, cables and even black ink containing silver and palladium to extract useful metals.
Recovery is not easy.
Although people's awareness of environmental protection is increasing and they attach great importance to recycling, the Japanese city "mining industry" still encounters some difficulties in the process of collecting discarded mobile phones.
Japanese people change their mobile phones every two years and eight months on average. Although so many mobile phones are idle every year, only 10% to 20% of them are recycled. This is because people are worried that their mobile phones will reveal personal data and are unwilling to hand it over to recycling agencies. According to industry data, from March 2006 to March 2007, Japan only recycled 558 tons of discarded mobile phones.
Due to rising metal prices, some Japanese companies began to import second-hand integrated circuit boards from Singapore and Indonesia. Integrated circuit boards contain a variety of rare metals, such as indium, an important material for flat-panel TVs and computer screens, and bismuth and antimony, which are essential in high-tech products.